{"id":3400,"date":"2016-07-02T22:13:58","date_gmt":"2016-07-02T16:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3400"},"modified":"2016-07-02T22:13:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-02T16:43:58","slug":"pataakha-review-vishal-bhardwaj-radhika-madan-sisters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3400","title":{"rendered":"Pataakha Review: What Vishal Bhardwaj Gets Right About Sisterly Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

M<\/span><\/p><\/div>

y <\/span>younger sister<\/span><\/a> and I are four years apart. Right now, as we both chart our identities as young adults in different cities, our age gap feels like an expanse. But back when our ages were in single digits and we shared a room and regular scoldings \u2013 there was no one who felt closer to me. As people who liked being left to ourselves, my sister and I spent a lot of weekends cooped up watching <\/span>Hindi films<\/span><\/a> on TV and fighting over who would be in charge of the remote. And it was one of those routine Sunday afternoon viewings that introduced us to Raj Kanwar\u2019s <\/span>Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega<\/span><\/i>. <\/span>\n\nWe took to the film instantly. Its calling card, that turned us into breathless fans, was the song: \u201c<\/span>Piya Piya<\/span><\/a>\u201d. Our favourite part of the song had the two almost-sisters (they\u2019re actually best friends), doing their signature move on a bed wearing nothing but a towel. My sister and I were so taken by it that it became a daily ritual to recreate it in the confines of our rooms. I suppose, we were mesmerised by the halo of sisterly affection the song emanated, and dancing to it, we believed, was the perfect way to articulate our closeness. <\/span>\n\nIt took some years for us to realise that sisterhood is a bit more complicated than synchronising our dance steps. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n\nToday as I watched writer-director <\/span>Vishal Bhardwaj\u2019s<\/span><\/a> Pataakha<\/span><\/i>, a delightful oddball comedy about two warring sisters, I saw a rare glimpse of sisterly disaffection in Hindi cinema, which otherwise sidelines the complexities of this bond. Adapted from Charan Singh Pathik\u2019s short story \u201cDo Behenein\u201d and set in <\/span>Rajasthan<\/span><\/a>, the film revolves around the war-mongering between Champa Kumari aka Badki (an effervescent Radhika Madan) and her younger sister Genda Kumari aka Chutki (Sanya Malhotra). Much like quarrelling neighbours, India and Pakistan, an undercurrent that runs through the film. And like these two countries that once had a single beating heart, Badki and Chutki too are tied by blood. Yet all they yearn for is freedom from one another. Their single <\/span>father<\/span><\/a>, Bapu (a stellar Vijay Raaz), holds his sub-standard parenting culpable for their strife.<\/span>\n\n

What I found most fascinating about Pataakha<\/em> is that it refuses to give a cliched backstory of why the two sisters perpetually launch into fisticuffs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nWhat I found most fascinating about <\/span>Pataakha<\/span><\/i> \u2013 that comes alive with earthy <\/span>small-town <\/span><\/a>humour and idiosyncrasies \u2013 is that it refuses to give a cliched backstory of why the two sisters perpetually launch into fisticuffs. Hindi cinema has always depicted sibling rivalry with an underlying cause: They hate each other either because they\u2019re step-siblings, or one feels less loved than the other. If it\u2019s not a property dispute, then it\u2019s because they fell for the same person. In <\/span>Pataakha<\/span><\/i>, Badki and Chutki have no such qualms: They marry two different people (although, their husbands are siblings and they end up living in the same house), and are equally loved and scolded by their father. Instead, the cause of their conflict is internal \u2013 their games of one-upmanship are their chosen language to express sisterly disaffection, dipped in affection.<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s a language most sisters are fluent in. When Badki mocks Chutki\u2019s new clothes and then proceeds to steals them in the dead of the night to wear on a date, I remembered the rage I felt \u2013 which, in no time, snowballed into a <\/span>wrestling match<\/span><\/a> \u2013 when my sister borrowed something from my wardrobe without asking me. When Chutki celebrates Badki\u2019s forced marriage with a sleazy villager, even though she is on the verge of tears, I recalled my sister going about her day nonchalantly after being spared a beating by my mother, even as I became the victim. <\/span>\n\nSisters are each other\u2019s strength and weakness \u2013 you can\u2019t live with them, can\u2019t live without them. <\/span>Pataakha<\/span><\/i> understands that. It\u2019s new ground to tread, especially in a film universe dominated by predictable <\/span>sister<\/span><\/a> tropes, such as the sacrificing sister (<\/span>Laaga Chunari Mein Daag<\/span><\/i>), the chalk-and-cheese twins (<\/span>Chalbaaz<\/span><\/i>), the doting siblings (<\/span>Dangal<\/span><\/i>), and the dead or ailing sister (<\/span>October<\/span><\/i><\/a>, No One Killed Jessica<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0With Pataakha<\/em> then, Bhardwaj attempts to look at the unpleasant side of sisterly affection \u2013 one where you\u2019re dependent on pulling the other down to prop yourself up.<\/span>\n\nLike Badki and Chutki, my sister and I fought, not because we didn\u2019t love each other, but because we were wired to do so in order to put up with each other. Over a decade after my sister and I were enamoured by two women in towels lip-syncing to questionable lyrics, a Hindi film has finally grasped that public displays of sisterly affection can involve fists too.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sisters are each other\u2019s strength and weakness \u2013 you can\u2019t live with them, can\u2019t live without them. Vishal Bhardwaj\u2019s Pataakha understands this language of sisterhood, where throwing abuses, insults, and jabs at each other is par for the course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":3401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3114],"tags":[6515,6521,6522,3993,6523,6295,1406],"class_list":["post-3400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bollywood","tag-pataakha","tag-pataakha-review","tag-radhika-madan","tag-rajasthan","tag-sanya-malhotra","tag-sisters","tag-vishal-bhardwaj"],"yoast_head":"\nPataakha Review: What Vishal Bhardwaj Gets Right About Sisterly Love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sisters are each other\u2019s strength and weakness \u2013 you can\u2019t live with them, can\u2019t live without them. 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